Tag Archives: Helix Park

Award winning and celebrated Scottish sculptor Andy Scott has announced that he will hold his first major gallery show in New York this coming June at the Glasgow Caledonian University Campus.

Scott received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters this past November from Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) “in recognition of his renowned talent and creativity as a sculptor and his specialisms in the field of steel structures.”

Image via scottsculptures.co.uk

Scott, who studied at Glasgow School of Art, creates his monumental metal sculptures in his Glasgow workshop. He is most famous for his landmark Kelpies monument at Helix Park in Falkirk. He spent eight years working on the Kelpies, which are a pair of steel horse heads 30 meters high. They are the largest works of art in Scotland and the largest equine sculptures in the world. In their first year alone, the Kelpies attracted 1.4 million visitors.

In 2014, the ASF worked with Scott to bring the Kelpies to New York. The 20ft Kelpie macquettes were on display during Scotland Week 2014 on the Fountain Terrace of Bryant Park. The Kelpies attracted tens of thousands of visitors to the Plaza bringing a focus to the 100ft Kelpies which were being installed at the Helix Falkirk at that time.

Image via flickr.com

As Andy Scott says of the Kelpies, “They stand testament to the achievements of the past, a tribute to artisanship and engineering and a proud declaration of intent for the future of Scotland.”

Image via scottsculptures.co.uk

The Kelpies will feature in the upcoming New York gallery, depicted with the full bodies that one might imagine to be hiding ‘beneath the ground’ at their Falkirk site. The gallery, which will last two months from June, will also feature a show of small sculptures, photographs and other images. Scott is currently working on a series of small clay maquettes, which will be cast in bronze for the show. “The process for me now is different,” he explains, “I am working on intricate clay models when I am usually hitting something with a five pound hammer.”

Although Scott admits that the vast amount of work threatens to “do his head in,” he is thankful for the chance to share his work with an American audience. “When an opportunity like this comes along you would be foolish not to seize it with both hands,” he said.

The American-Scottish Foundation looks forward to attending Andy Scott’s gallery show this June and will share further updates on the upcoming GCU Exhibit as they are announced.

Starting January 12, 2015, a £1.45m visitor’s centre at Falkirk’s Helix Park will begin construction near the park’s famous Kelpies, reports BBC News.

The visitor’s centre was designed by Dundee architects Nicol Russel Studios following an international design competition, and will include many new additions, such as a restaurant, shopping area, visitor information and facilities, and an audio-visual experience.

The iconic sculptures are a high priority in the design of the new centre, and visitors’ views of the Kelpies will be preserved and uninterrupted. The new centre is designed to blend into the landscape around it using grass mounds and landscaped roof panes.

Park officials have estimated that 800,000 people have visited the site since the Kelpies opened in April – not including the traveling, 1:10 scale Kelpies Maquettes, which visited New York City’s Bryant Park last spring.

It is expected that the new centre should open in late summer 2015, according to culture, leisure and tourism spokesman Adrian Mahoney.

Other nominations for the award included the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow, Waverly Train Station Renewals in Edinburgh, the Shore Road Bridge Reconstruction, and the Glentarken Bridge. The award, first given in 1981, was established to showcase and honor the greatest achievements in Scottish engineering.

Convenor of the awards panel, Gordon Pomphrey, said: “There is no doubt that the Kelpies have quickly become another iconic must-see visitor attraction and will be an internationally recognised landmark for many years to come.”

Created by artist Andy Scott, the 30 meter horse head sculptures reside in Helix Park, while the Kelpies Maquettes, two sets of 1:10 scale models of the larger sculptures, rotate locations, having been displayed locally in Scotland and internationally.

ASF is proud to have helped bring the Kelpies Maquettes to Bryant Park during New York Scotland Tartan Week 2014.